How to Redeem Qantas Points Effectively

There are many ways to redeem Qantas points, but using them for Classic Flight Rewards and upgrades is the best value! Our guide to redeeming Qantas Frequent Flyer points effectively explains why…

Types of Qantas Frequent Flyer redemptions

There are many ways to use Qantas points, both in the air and on the ground.

These are the five main ways to use Qantas points for flights:

• Classic Flight Rewards
• Oneworld Classic Flight Rewards (Qantas Oneworld Award)
• Classic Upgrade Rewards (Qantas points upgrades)
• Classic Plus Flight Rewards
• Points Plus Pay flights

And these are some of the ways to redeem Qantas points on the ground:

• Qantas Hotels bookings
• Qantas Holidays bookings
• Qantas Marketplace purchases (including gift card redemptions)
• Qantas Wine purchases (including Classic Wine Rewards)
• Ticketek bookings
• HOYTS movie tickets
• Car hire bookings (including Classic Car Rewards)
• Paying Qantas Insurance premiums
• Qantas Club membership
• Paying for fuel at BP
• Points Exclusives (e.g. VIP concert tickets)

There is a full list of the different ways to spend points on the Qantas website.

What are the best value uses of Qantas points?

Qantas points do not have a fixed value! This chart shows the average value you’ll get from one Qantas Frequent Flyer point, depending on how you spend it:

For the purposes of this chart, we looked at the average value of Qantas Classic Flight Reward seats and Classic Upgrade Rewards on domestic routes like Melbourne-Sydney and international routes like Sydney-Los Angeles.

As you can see, using Qantas points for flights or upgrades typically gives you the best value. That’s because the equivalent dollar value of these rewards is much higher compared to the number of points required.

Why redeeming Qantas points for flights is the best value

There’s a simple reason for this. When you redeem frequent flyer points for a Classic Reward flight or upgrade, these are typically seats that would have otherwise flown empty. The marginal cost to an airline of making an empty seat available as a frequent flyer redemption is very low, particularly if the flight is already operating anyway and the airline didn’t otherwise expect to sell that seat to a paying customer. But the perceived value of that “free” seat to Qantas Frequent Flyer members is a lot higher.

The trade-off is that airlines control the capacity of frequent flyer redemption seats and upgrades. There is typically only a limited number of Classic Reward seats available to book on each flight. Some flights during peak periods might not have any availability.

Qantas makes more seats available as Classic Plus rewards, and any seat on any Qantas flight can be booked using Points Plus Pay. But these awards are priced dynamically, so the number of points required is directly tied to the cost of a commercial airfare. In general, this means you’ll need to spend more points.

Airlines could offer an almost unlimited amount of gift cards or toasters for redemption, since the number of gift cards available to give out is not limited in the same way that seats on an aircraft are limited. The trade-off is that since a $50 gift card costs the frequent flyer program around $50 to provide, there is no opportunity here for outsized value.

The general rule here is:
The more difficult it is to convert a reward into cash, the more valuable it is!

Redeeming Qantas points on the ground

When you redeem points on Qantas Marketplace (formerly the Qantas Rewards Store), Qantas Frequent Flyer is making quite a tidy profit margin. That’s because you’re barely getting half a cent per point worth of value when redeeming your points for things like electrical appliances, luggage or gift cards.

For example, this toaster on Qantas Marketplace costs 39,830 Qantas points. It retails for $229, so you’re getting around 0.57 cents per point in value.

By comparison, it costs 36,800 Qantas points + $89.56 for a return Classic Flight Reward booking from Melbourne to Sydney in Business Class. Those flights would normally cost $1,806 return if you were to buy a regular ticket, meaning you get 4.66 cents per point in value for this redemption.

When you redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points for non-flight rewards, Qantas is essentially taking the retail price and converting it to points at a rate that favours the airline. Sometimes Qantas will try to tempt you to redeem points at the Qantas store with deals like “15% off toasters”. Don’t be fooled – it’s still a terrible deal!

In general, we do not recommend redeeming your Qantas points on the ground unless you never plan to fly anywhere! Instead of “cashing out” your points at a low value on products you could easily buy with cash, it’s best to save them for rewards with a much higher value.

But if you really want to redeem your Qantas points for a non-flight reward, these rewards could at least offer reasonable value:

• Qantas Hotels bookings
• Qantas Holidays bookings
• Classic Wine Rewards

Qantas Points Plus Pay Flights

You can redeem your points to book Qantas flights using Points Plus Pay, but this works in the same way as most non-flight redemptions. Qantas simply takes the cash fare price of any available flight and converts it to points at an unfavourable rate of around 0.6 cents per point.

There are some advantages to using Qantas Points Plus Pay:

• You can book any available seat on any Qantas flight
• You only need a minimum of 5,000 Qantas points
• Points Plus Pay tickets earn Qantas points and status credits (Classic Reward tickets do not earn anything unless you’re in Points Club)

However, it rarely ever makes sense to book flights using Points Plus Pay. On the rare occasion that this happens to represent good value, it’s because the regular airfare is cheap to start with. In this case, you’re probably better off either booking a Classic Plus reward (see below) or saving your points for a higher-value reward instead.

Here’s an example of why booking a Classic Flight Reward is better value than Points Plus Pay. On the flight below, an Economy seat from Canberra to Brisbane costs 34,100 Qantas points using Points Plus Pay:

Yet, it costs just 8,000 Qantas points and $59 in fees to book this flight as a Classic Reward. That’s around a quarter of the number of points! In Business, the price difference is even more extreme.

Qantas Classic Plus Flight Rewards

In April 2024, Qantas introduced Classic Plus Flight Rewards on its own flights. These are much more widely available than Classic Flight Rewards, but generally cost more points.

Classic Plus rewards are better value than Points Plus Pay, but Points Plus Pay still has the most availability.

Qantas prices Classic Plus Flight Rewards dynamically, based on the cost of an equivalent commercial airfare. When booking Classic Plus, Qantas basically just converts the cash airfare to points at the following rates:

• Economy Class bookings: 1 cent per point
• Premium Economy, Business or First bookings: 1.5 cents per point

You’ll still need to pay the same taxes & carrier charges that you would on a Classic Reward using money. On long-haul Business & First Class redemptions, Qantas charges higher carrier charges on Classic Plus bookings in order to offset some of the points required.

Classic Plus rewards have the same flexibility and conditions as Classic rewards.

Qantas Classic Flight Rewards

Qantas Classic Flight Rewards are one of the best uses of Qantas points, but they are subject to availability. Airlines only release limited reward seats, especially on popular long-haul routes and in Premium Economy, Business and First Class.

Finding award availability can be especially difficult if you wish to travel in peak periods like school holidays. But if you look hard enough, you can usually find seats – and you’ll get a lot more value for your frequent flyer points!

To search for Classic Reward seats on the Qantas website, select the “Rewards” slider:

To book a Classic Flight Reward (or Classic Plus) seat, click on the “Rewards” filter after searching for the flight you want on the Qantas website:

How many Qantas points do you need for a Classic Flight Reward?

The number of Qantas points required for a Classic Flight Reward is published in the tables on the Qantas website. The cost depends on the distance travelled and airline/s used, as we explain in this separate article.

There are three different Qantas Frequent Flyer award charts:

• The Qantas Classic Flight Reward table covers flights on one or more of the following airlines: Qantas, Jetstar, American Airlines and/or Fiji Airways
• The Jetstar Classic Flight Reward table covers itineraries exclusively on Jetstar, which are priced around 20% lower than Qantas
• The Partner Classic Flight Reward table covers travel on all other partner airlines

Stopovers of more than 24 hours are not permitted on Qantas Classic Flight Reward bookings. If there is a break in an international trip of more than 24 hours, the ticket would be priced as two separate awards. You can travel up to 15,000 miles on a one-way award ticket.

Fly with Qantas or a partner airline

You can redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points to fly on any of the Oneworld alliance airlines:

Qantas points can also be redeemed for flights on other partner airlines:

• Air France (Economy and Business only)
• Air New Zealand (New Zealand domestic flights only)
• Air Tahiti Nui (Auckland-Papeete & Papeete-Los Angeles codeshare routes only)
• Bangkok Airways (Economy only)
• China Airlines
• China Eastern
• El Al
• Emirates
• Fiji Airways
• Jetstar
• KLM
• LATAM Airlines
• Oman Air
• Westjet (Economy only)

How to get more value from Classic Flight Rewards

Classic Flight Rewards can be lucrative. That’s because the number of points required does not necessarily reflect the cost of an equivalent airfare.

In general, you’ll get the best value for your points by using them to fly in Premium Economy, Business or First Class. These redemptions are fantastic value because you’ll only need around 2-3x the number of points required for an Economy seat (and the fees and taxes are rarely much higher, if at all). Yet, the commercial airfare can be five or even 10 times the price of Economy!

Economy Classic Flight Rewards can be good value if the equivalent airfare is high. On expensive domestic routes, using points for shorter flights within Australia is often particularly good value.

One extreme example is flights to Lord Howe Island. A return Economy fare from Sydney to Lord Howe Island often costs well over $1,000, but you can fly there on a Classic Flight Reward for 16,000 Qantas points and around $195 in taxes. Unfortunately, Classic Reward availability on routes like Sydney-Lord Howe Island is often limited.

One other little-known advantage of booking a Classic or Classic Plus Flight Reward is that you can change or cancel reward flights relatively easily.

For international bookings, there is a change fee of only 5,000 Qantas points and a cancellation fee of 6,000 Qantas points. By comparison, regular commercial airfares (including Points Plus Pay bookings) are less flexible.

Taxes and carrier charges

Unfortunately, reward flights are not entirely free. In addition to the points, there are taxes and charges payable on all award bookings. These are predominantly made up of genuine government taxes and airport fees. But some airlines, including Qantas, also impose their own “carrier charges” on top of this.

Qantas carrier charges can add as much as $700 to the cost of a round-trip Classic Flight Reward booking when flying with Qantas. When flying on some partner airlines, such as Emirates or Royal Jordanian Airlines, the carrier charges may be even higher.

For flights where the equivalent cash fare is not that high (such as international Economy flights), the taxes and carrier charges can make using points uneconomical at times.

There are some ways to avoid or minimise carrier charges. One strategy is to redeem Qantas points to fly on partner airlines that don’t have them, such as Fiji Airways, Alaska Airlines or LATAM Airlines.

If you’re departing from Europe, the UK charges a hefty Air Passenger Duty. You can avoid this by returning home from continental Europe instead of London, Manchester or Edinburgh!

Oneworld Classic Flight Reward

The Oneworld Classic Flight Reward (formerly known as the Qantas Oneworld Award) is a special type of multi-city award ticket offered by Qantas Frequent Flyer. You can use this to travel around the world, although this is not a requirement.

Just about any routing is permitted as long as you stick to the following rules:

• Up to 5 stopovers
• Up to 35,000 total miles travelled
• Up to 16 flight sectors
• Travel may only be on Oneworld airlines, and you must use at least two Oneworld airlines other than Qantas

The Oneworld Classic Flight Reward costs a fixed number of points and is an exceptional deal!

Prices are currently as follows:

• Economy: 132,400 Qantas points + taxes
• Premium Economy: 249,600 Qantas points + taxes
• Business: 318,000 Qantas points + taxes
• First: 455,000 Qantas points + taxes

The Oneworld Classic Flight Reward is arguably one of the best uses of Qantas points – especially in Business Class. You’ll pay around the same number of points for a Oneworld Award as you would for a simple round-trip booking from Sydney to London or New York on Emirates or a Oneworld airline.

If you’re thinking about redeeming your Qantas points for a round-the-world trip, be sure to read our guide to booking a Oneworld Classic Flight Reward with Qantas points!

Qantas Classic Upgrade Rewards

Qantas points upgrades can also be great value. You can use Qantas points to upgrade any Qantas flight, provided you’ve purchased a ticket in an eligible booking class.

The number of Qantas points required for an upgrade depends on your ticket type and the distance of the flight, as published in the Classic Upgrade Reward tables on the Qantas website.

When using points to upgrade, you’ll only receive points and status credits for the class of travel that you originally booked.

If possible, it’s better to redeem points for an outright reward seat in the cabin you wish to travel in. This removes the “lottery” aspect of upgrades. It also typically works out to be better overall value. But if you have bought an Economy ticket and don’t mind taking the risk, upgrading can still be a worthwhile use of Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

Qantas does not confirm international upgrades in advance

For Qantas domestic flights, the airline will confirm your upgrade request immediately if there is a Classic Reward seat in Business available on your flight.

However, upgrading on Qantas international flights is more like entering a lottery. Upgrades are never confirmed until a few days before the flight, and priority is given to frequent flyers with the highest Qantas status.

On Qantas, Economy Sale fares on international flights cannot be upgraded using frequent flyer points. Neither can flights operated by other airlines, except for a few specific codeshare flights operated by selected partner airlines with a “QF” flight number.

Want to learn more about redeeming Qantas points?

There is plenty of discussion on Australian Frequent Flyer’s dedicated Qantas Frequent Flyer forum.

If you’re new to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program and want to ask a question, check out our Qantas Newbie Questions Thread. You may also be interested in the Australian Frequent Flyer Training courses, full of easy-to-understand tips and strategies to help you learn the tricks of the trade!

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